With no zoom on a GoPro, it seems the only way to get a close up video of a wakeboarder is to shoot from a tube using a GoPole. Has anybody here tried this? I was wondering how much shorter the tube's rope should be and what is a good tube to use.

i feel like we could have gone with a little longer tube rope. our problem was the tub is very wide, about double the width of others i have seen so if you sit up on the tube the rope come close to your head and the longer the tube rope the closer the wake board rope to the filmers head. if i had a shorter tube i think i could have gotten closer. i used about a 3 ft 3/4" pvc pipe to mount the camera to try and dampin some of the bouncing from the tube. if you sit up its alot smoother than laying down and having your shoulders bounce on the tube

I appreciate the good tips. It seems the higher the tower and the lower the tube, the better. The guys I ride with don't always jump in both directions so I will have to stay as low as possible. I'm thinking about using a cockpit tube like the one pictured below.